Today I will be driving two Porsche Caymans
Why two?
This one has an automatic gearbox and this a manual
I will show you the difference, first the automatic!
There we are, in the Porsche Cayman, they also call it the most basic Porsche
It also the cheapest Porsche you can get
But do you get less Porsche for less money? I don't think so
You get a true Porsche for your money. The first things I notice is the light weight of this car
1300kg with 245hp, it is a pretty wild car
And what really surprised me; it feels much better than a Porsche 911
Everyone talks about the dream of a boy; the 911
But why would you buy a more expensive car which doesn't drive as good as the Cayman?
And why does the Cayman drive better? The 911 is very heavy on the back
The engine is behind the rear axle, and you feel that, especially in corners
This Cayman is totally different
It has a 2.7 Boxer engine which is between the front and rear axle.
Which resulted in the perfect balance
And that with 1300kg and 200+hp, you have a very playfull car
You can push this car pretty far
The balance is great and this one has 911 wheels which are more wide, which means more grip
But that's not why we are driving the Cayman, we want to experience the difference between the tiptronic automatic and the manual gearbox
In the past, Porsche wasn't the best with producing automatic gearboxes
The tipronic is fine, the shifting goes very smooth, but it isn't exciting
It doesn't downshift on the right moments, and the buttons on the steering wheel doesn't feel very good either
It feels electronic and not mechanic and that's not what you want..
Nowadays Porsche has PDK, which is great
You can put the Automatic into a manual mode
I have to buttons on my steering wheel with a + and a -
I am now driving 60km/h in 4th gear, back to second gear..
Right in front of me I see 4000rpm, full throttle..
It pulls to 7000rpm, and than the 2.7 engine sounds great!
The boxer engines by Porsche are great!
A natural engine like this you have to keep in high revs, above 4000rpm it comes a live
This is better than a small engine with a little turbo, isn't it?
This is the real deal
I can conclude that the Cayman tiptronic is very comfortable..
But I am going to trade it for the Cayman with the manual gearbox
We are now in the Cayman with the manual gearbox
I have traded the comfort for the more sportive Cayman
First thing I noticed is that this car is made for a true driver
It has red seatbelts, red speedometer and instead of a navigation system we have a sport chrono meter
With this car you drive for fun, and you don't need a navigation system
The red seat belts suit the car very good, and the manual gearbox is very sportive
You can shift very fast
I am now on the highway, and now I prefer the tiptronic. I have to brake and shiftdown all the time..
I go for the manual today, I like it!
I have much more feeling, and it feels you have it more in control
Driving with this manual is very playfull and the clutch is not too heavy
Also very nice that it doesn't shift automatically at 7000rpm
Too much rpm in a corner, give some throttle and the back will come out
Don't do this too often, because it will cost you some tires
The Cayman suprised me in a good way, the control, the power, it is fun to drive, it beats the 911
But if you would ask me, ''which one would you prefer?'', I wouldn't know for sure
The question is; what is your purpose of owning a Cayman?
Are you going to use it every day, or only in the weekends?
For every day use I would go for the tiptronic, with all the traffic jams here in the Netherlands
Only for the weekends? Take the manual gearbox!
